Removable pressure-sensitive adhesives are used on a variety of products including labels, tapes, films, and the like, to enable the product to adhere to a substrate and then to later be removed from the substrate without difficulty and without leaving a stain or residue. Currently, commercially available acrylic emulsion removable pressure-sensitive adhesives cannot be used with film facestocks such as plasticized polyvinyl chloride (PVC) which are used in outdoor applications. Such outdoor applications include decorative decals which are applied to substrates such as glass. The typical technique for applying such a decorative decal to a substrate is to spray water on the adhesive and/or substrate so that the decal is slidingly movable over the substrate for ease of positioning. Unfortunately, in such a technique, the acrylic emulsion adhesive film turns milky in contact with water. For transparent filmstocks, this results in an undesirable appearance.
For a successful acrylic emulsion removable pressure-sensitive adhesive to be used with decorative films and decals in outdoor applications, the adhesive should exhibit good water resistance along with good anchorage of the adhesive to the film facestock to assure clean removability from the substrate. The only current commercially available acrylic emulsion pressure-sensitive adhesives which demonstrate good water resistance are permanent adhesives, i.e. those that leave an adhesive residue on the substrate if the facestock is removed. Currently available removable acrylic emulsion pressure-sensitive adhesives which demonstrate good anchorage to the film also exhibit poor water resistance. Accordingly, there is a need for a removable acrylic emulsion pressure-sensitive adhesive which combines both good water resistance and good anchorage to the film facestock.